


Fortune and Favour

by manic_intent



Category: Game of Thrones (TV), Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M, That Game of Thrones AU where Thor is from House Lannister, and Loki is some mutant runt Other, extended version of the tumblr fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 18:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1754017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manic_intent/pseuds/manic_intent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Thor of Lannister, golden-hair," Anthony Stark points from the parapet, balanced precariously on the edge with his sister Virginia at his side, their gray and brown dire wolves Ferrum and Hera clustered panting and excited beside their masters. Loki Snow tilts his gaze over the cold stone with more dignity than his full-blooded siblings, his albino dire wolf Fenris equally sedate at his heels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fortune and Favour

**Author's Note:**

> I was originally going to write an Modern!GoT!Avengers crossover where Ned is head of Stark Industries, and Tony is the oldest of the Stark kids (a strange ficbunny that rose out of googling 'Martell' and realizing that it's an old cognac brand, which @beingevil told me is a brand that older men break out for karaoke sessions) but ended up digging up old fics instead. 
> 
> Originally, I wrote this as a tumblr Thor/Loki shortfic in 2012 to amuse @beingevil I think, because a lot of the weirder fics I do are under instigation. Looking back I realize it's now become inexplicably popular...? And it's the first GoT fic I ever wrote, so here's the extended version for AO3.
> 
> The prompt was "What if Thor was a Lannister and Loki was a mutant runt Other masquerading as a Stark." and the cool fanart is here: http://balphesian.tumblr.com/post/10348450586
> 
> I've tried to fill in all the side characters with either GoT chars or Norse mythology chars. Needless to say, since Thor is a Lannister, this is kinda a dark!Thor fic...

Loki.

"Thor of Lannister, golden-hair," Anthony Stark points from the parapet, balanced precariously on the edge with his sister Virginia at his side, their gray and brown dire wolves Ferrum and Hera clustered panting and excited beside their masters. Loki Snow tilts his gaze over the cold stone with more dignity than his full-blooded siblings, his albino dire wolf Fenris equally sedate at his heels.

"Were the two of you not meant to be in the courtyard with our father to greet our royal guests and their entourage?” Loki tries again, not for the first time, and has to stifle an impulse born of frustration when Anthony merely flashes a bright, carefree grin at him over his fur-lined cloak.

"Oh, come on, Loki. If we were really meant to be there, Father would have had someone ferret us out by now."

"Yes, if we hadn’t actually reached this position via skittering over the rooftops and avoiding all reasonable methods of ingress-"

"He’s as handsome as they say," Virginia sighs dreamily, following the white-cloaked Kingsguard as the progression filtered through the gates of Winterfell. "Like the lion of the crest of his House." 

Both of her brothers, full and half blooded, bristle instantly, ignoring their usual ongoing feud to unite in a wall of brotherly disapproval. ”He probably has a long string of mistresses,” Anthony declares, ignoring for now the hypocrisy of that particular criticism. Anthony is but eighteen this year, and has already left a string of broken hearts behind him as long as the White Knife. 

"He’s part of the Kingsguard, he can’t have heirs," Loki adds, glowering at the tall, broad-shouldered Ser Thor on his bay stallion, and his rather tasteless gleaming gold and black armor.

"He looks like a shiny thug," Anthony continues.

"And I’m sure that his swordsmanship cannot compare to our father’s." 

Virginia rolls her eyes, the only precious daughter of Howard Stark and bane of her brothers’ existence, and beside her, Hera huffs, ears flicking forward, then back. ”I was just making an aesthetic observation… oh,” she breathes, with a giddy smile, as for some reason Thor glances up, at the parapet, and sees them. He smiles, leonine as his crest, startlingly handsome, seemingly good-natured, and his piercing eyes sweep past them before dropping back to glance at his King. 

Loki bites down on his lower lip, a chill curling through his spine, even as Fenris nudges his knee anxiously. Thor had looked past the full-blooded Stark children to him, and had winked. 

Thankfully, his siblings seem embroiled in argument and haven’t noticed; Virginia has abruptly decided that they should have been in the courtyard ‘all along’, after all, and the parapet escapade is fully Anthony’s fault (untrue). Loki relaxes, with a slow breath, and tangles his fingers in Fenris’ ruff. 

"If we head west and keep our heads down we should be able to descend through the eastern guardsman’s tower and into the barracks, and head through that to the Great Hall," Loki suggests, having planned a quick return on necessity, knowing his siblings’ tendency towards distraction and strife. 

“Brilliant,” Anthony declares, and hurries in the wrong direction, and has to be hooked absently over by Loki. ”Come on, Pepper. You too, Loki.”

"I was not meant to be presented to the King," Loki reminds them patiently, which was the reason why he had wanted to come up to the parapet, to look at the guests. He had also meant to come up here alone.

"Well, if you’re not going to be presented to the King, then I won’t be, either," Anthony decides, folding his arms, and that’s how their father’s steward Jarvis finds them, with Loki arguing with Anthony and Pepper peeking over the parapet at the milling, steaming horses and their shivering riders.

"Your father expects you and Lady Virginia in the Great Hall," Jarvis addresses Anthony wearily, rather too old a man to be clambering around the outer wall and haring after wayward Stark children. "Now, if you please."

"What about Loki?" Anthony demands stubbornly, and Jarvis sighs, his breath puffing white in the chill.

"You know that-"

"Just because he’s a _Snow_. He's our brother too, and my father's son! Why can't he be presented in the Hall?"

"Just go, Anthony,” Loki snaps, “Before you get all of us into trouble. Again.”

Anthony sucks in a sharp breath, and glares at him, then he stalks off, over towards the guard tower. Virginia glances at Loki, her warm brown eyes liquid with worry, then she sets her chin and hurries after Jarvis, the dire wolves at their heels.

Loki waits until they are gone, then he leans his elbows on the parapet, Fenris pressed tight against the back of his knees, pulling his furred cloak more firmly over his shoulders, looking out over the vast expanse of the snow-cloaked world beyond the walls of Winterfell, allows himself to feel the tug deep within his soul, like a homebound call. 

Tomorrow, perhaps, or the day after. He'll ride North, like he knows that he was always meant to. Explore the white reaches. Go beyond the Wall, and satisfy the restlessness in his soul. At his side, Fenris makes a low, snuffling sound, as though in assent, and Loki strokes it behind its ears. This is not truly their world, this fastness of stone and bitter iron, of men and their clockwork lives, and the dire wolf knows it.

At dinner, Anthony marches purposefully towards where Loki is seated with the castle staff, far at the back of the Hall, and probably would have seated himself right at that table if Maria Stark hadn't hastily grabbed her headstrong son's elbow. Loki nods at Pepper's apologetic glance, and keeps his peace. It's good to see that his siblings would obviously prefer to be seated beside him, but his resentment is an old and thorny one, and he nurses it quietly as he eats, avoiding everyone's eyes.

Besides, it isn't as though he can see much of the high table from where he is. Ser Thor is there, and his sister Queen Freyja, and King Robert, an old friend of Lord Howard Stark. Prince Magni is present, Robert's heir, but not Prince Ullr or Princess Sigrun, and Loki catches a brief glance of golden-haired Magni, talking animatedly to Pepper, before resentment drags his attention back to his food. 

He excuses himself early, stealing out of the feasting to the courtyards, where Fenris ghosts out of the shadows of the stables to his side, followed by Ferrum and Hera, who sniff at his hands hopefully and then stare reproachfully at him when he shrugs at them. "You've all been fed," he tells them firmly. 

Ferrum yips, then abruptly glances to the side, even as Fenris presses closer. Someone is coming out of the keep, a hooded man, tall and lean, but then Hera bounds over, with a huff of welcome, and bounds around the man until he pulls back his hood. 

"Nuncle," Loki greets Benjen Stark respectfully. Benjen had declined to be seated at the high table, despite Howard's reproachful stare, and had in fact not even been present at the feast, as far as Loki recalls. 

"Cold night for festivities," Benjen notes, clearly amused to see him here.

"What brings you from the Wall, nuncle?" Loki asks, curious. They hardly ever saw Benjen at Winterfell - the man was First Ranger, and spent far more time north of the Wall than in the lands of Men, or so Howard had said. 

"The usual reasons," Benjen admits, though he smiles faintly. "Begging for men and resources. You should come to the Wall," he adds, when Loki says nothing. "You are a boy grown, and I have heard good tidings from the weapons master. At the Wall, no one will care whether you are a Snow, if you are as good as a blade as he says you are."

Loki nods. He had been expecting Benjen to ask for him, and now that it has happened - he finds that he is unsure. "Anthony will try and follow me."

"Howard will watch him closely," Benjen says, though he nods at that, and wryly. "That boy is far more trouble than he is worth."

"And-"

"And why go to the Wall," drawls a rich and deep baritone, from the shadow of the great portcullis that leads to the inner Keep, "When you can go to King's Landing? Prove yourself as a knight-at-arms, and no one will care overmuch about your birth."

It is Ser Thor, and even as Benjen stiffens, Loki draws himself straighter, startled. For such a big man, Thor must walk like a cat. 

"That is untrue," Benjen says firmly. "Unfortunately, in Westeros, only at the Wall or in Dorne would the name 'Snow' not bring you ill fortune, Loki." 

"That would but depend on your friends." Thor steps out into the gray light of the moon and the flickering torches set at uneven intervals in the inner keep, and smiles, confident and leonine. There's something _inviting_ about that smile that Loki instinctively mistrusts, something predatory. The lion is hunting.

Loki is no prey. "My Father's House has served the Wall for centuries," he says finally, flatly. "I belong at the Wall." 

"Such a waste," Thor murmurs, and there's a frankness to his eyes that makes Loki shiver.

Anthony.

Anthony would have been sorely tempted to punch Prince Magni in the eye by now if Magni wasn't followed everywhere by his guardian, Ser Steven Dayne, also of the Kingsguard. Golden-haired Ser Steven is quite possibly even more handsome than Ser Thor, Anthony thinks critically, and he's heard that Ser Steven is undefeated at the blade and shield, though Ser Thor is better at jousting. It's a bit of a pity that Ser Steven never seems particularly inclined towards idle conversation.

"Magni is perfect," Pepper tells him dreamily, for the sixth time that day. "We are to be wed, did you know?"

"You've only told me so a hundred times," Anthony says sourly. Wedding Pepper to that pale streak of piss with a crown is not one of his father Lord Howard's better ideas. 

"You're just jealous that you won't be coming to King's Landing with me," Pepper tells Anthony loftily. 

"It's _unfair_ ," Anthony bursts out, startling a handful of birds into flight from where they're sitting in the old, gnarled godswood. "Loki is going to the Wall, and _you're_ going to King's Landing, and I'll be _here alone_ and it's _unfair_."

"You can come visit either of us at any time," Pepper hugs him comfortingly. "Father is going to be the Hand of the King, so you'll have to stay here and run Winterfell-"

"I know," Anthony says sullenly. "Life is _awful_." 

"You're being dramatic," Pepper informs him unmercifully, even as Ferrum noses Anthony in the back, trying to reassure its master. Hera merely huffs, watching the snow, ears pricking now and then at the distant sounds of something or other in Winterfell. "I'm surprised that _you_ didn't go on the hunt."

"I don't like hunts," Anthony mutters. "Hunting to eat is fine. Hunting just to slaughter some poor animal for sport is cruel. Have you seen dogs loosed on a fox, or on deer? It's the most cruel sport there is." 

"All lords hunt," Pepper says irritably, though she bites down on her lower lip. Magni had left Winterfell riding enthusiastically at the head of the hunting party. "And we often eat venison afterwards." 

"Maybe," Anthony says rebelliously, "But I still don't like it. Loki didn't go either. Or nuncle Benjen. Or Ser Thor. Or the Queen." Not that he likes Ser Thor, or the Queen, but he doesn't say as much. "Let's go and find Loki. I bet he's hiding somewhere, wishing he could stay in Winterfell."

Pepper shakes her head slowly, but they hunt around Winterfell, even over the slippery rooftops, their dire wolves whining reproachfully at them from the safety of the ramparts, and Loki is nowhere to be found. Benjen hasn't seen him, either, and the Queen is in the solar, talking to Lady Maria. His mother makes a little face when Anthony asks her if she's seen Loki, and the Queen stiffens, her expression going cold: it's Pepper who somehow extracts them from that increasingly awkward conversation. 

"What's _her_ problem?" Anthony growls, as he stamps away, towards the library. Maybe Loki is there. "Mother doesn't like Loki because he's a reminder of Father's indiscretions. But what does the Queen have against Loki?"

"Some people just do not like bastards," Pepper says, though she's clearly irritated as well. "Let's just find Loki and go riding."

It takes a fruitless hour before they finally locate Fenris, half-buried under a snowdrift and partly asleep - the dire wolf shakes itself free and touches noses solemnly with its siblings. It's lying at the foot of one of the old watch towers, and Pepper peers up, shading her eyes against the glare of the winter sun.

"Maybe Loki's up there," she says doubtfully. 

"Of course he's up there. Where else could he be?" Anthony starts to reach for a handhold, and Pepper grabs at his wrist sharply. 

"No. What if you fall?"

"I've never fallen before."

" _No_ , brother. Please. No." 

They're still arguing by the time Loki reappears, in the entryway to the tower. He looks startled to see them, then amused, and even as Anthony starts to greet him, he frowns. Emerging behind Anthony is Ser Thor, still buckling on his cloak, and as he looks sharply between Thor and Loki, he sees a faint reddened mark under the fur trimming of Loki's cloak, against his neck.

" _Really_? Him?" Anthony tells Loki, who flushes very slightly but rolls his eyes. 

"And a good day to you as well, Lord Anthony," Ser Thor says dryly. "It's rather unfortunate that you won't be accompanying your siblings to King's Landing, but perhaps you can visit them, and often."

"Loki's going to the Wall," Pepper corrects, then she hesitates, and looks at Loki. "Aren't you?"

"I will, when I am older," Loki says mildly. "But for now, I may go to King's Landing first, to train with Ser Steven and Ser Barristan. The Wall has endured for thousands of years. It can wait."

"Benjen is going to be _so_ disappointed," Anthony says accusingly. " _Really_ , Loki?"

Loki narrows his eyes, and there's a flash of temper in them before it smooths away. "Yes, brother, I'm nearly your age, and old enough to make my own decisions, _my lord_."

Stung, Anthony steps back, and even as Pepper protests, " _Loki_ ," Anthony says stiffly, "I suppose it was too much to expect, for someone like you to keep your word to our nuncle."

Loki clenches his hands. "I _will_ keep my word, just not _now_ ," he retorts. "Stay out of my business."

Loki.

Anthony's temper flares hot, but he's also usually the first one to feel sorry, and Loki isn't surprised to hear the quick knock on his door late into the night.

"Hey," Anthony says, his voice muffled from the wood. "Can I come in?"

Wordlessly, Loki opens the door. Ferrum squeezes through first, nuzzling his leg happily before padding over to snuggle up next to Fenris near the window, ignoring Fenris' irritable nip. Anthony walks in next, a little hunched over, his eyes slightly reddened, and Loki closes the door behind him and arches an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry about what I said," Anthony mutters.

"I'll watch over Pepper in King's Landing," Loki adds dryly. "I do not like Magni."

"Oh. _Oh_." Anthony blinks at Loki rapidly, then he turns very red. "Oh _Gods_ , Loki, I am _so_ sorry, I _thought_ that you just wanted to - just wanted to-"

Loki sighs. In truth, he wasn't entirely sure what had changed. He was certainly worried about Magni Baratheon - there is something cruel in that boy's eyes that Pepper clearly couldn't see. It wasn't Thor, either, handsome and confident as the Kingsguard was with pleasure. Nor is it the promise of training with Ser Barristan. It was simply not yet time to go north. Not yet. He needed to know more about the world. He needs to learn.

"I couldn't explain in front of Ser Thor." 

"I know, I know. Seven, I'm _so_ stupid," Anthony grabs his hand. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Loki says graciously, if only because Anthony will hound him day and night until he gets what he wants. 

"I should come too," Anthony adds. "If you think that there'll be trouble. I can ride with all of you some of the way." 

"You have duties here," Loki disagrees. "Pepper will have me, Fenris, and Hera. And Lord Howard and his men. We'll be fine." 

Anthony nods slowly, reluctantly. "I suppose. I don't like all of this. Father going away, Pepper getting betrothed, it's so quick. And you, and Ser Thor..." he trails off, uncomfortably.

"What about us?"

"I do not like him," Anthony admits, ever bluntly spoken, and Loki gives him a thin smile.

"Neither do I. But he will be a useful 'friend' to have, in King's Landing. He is the brother of the Queen, after all." 

Anthony stares at Loki in utter confusion. "Why would you... with someone you do not like... or did you-"

"He was handsome enough," Loki shrugs. "And as I said, he will be useful. Now is there aught else, brother?"

"No. I suppose not." Impulsively, Anthony hugs Loki tightly. "I'm going to miss the both of you _so_ much." 

Despite himself, Loki starts to smile, and he pats Anthony's shoulder gently. "We will write." 

"The Hells with writing. Come back every few months instead." Anthony steps away. 

"Stay out of trouble," Loki advises him, and he finds he's going to miss Winterfell. Some of it. "Now that Pepper and I won't be here to dig you out of it."

"I'll try," Anthony concedes, with one of his usual mischievous grins, and they clasp hands in the name of a fairer future: one that never comes.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: manic_intent  
> tumblr: manic-intent   
> ♥


End file.
